Memorial Day, and Minding the Gap

Mostly Monday morning mutterings and ramblings today...

It's Memorial Day, and we're having a big ol' cookout. Screaming kids, burgers and dogs, beer and lemonade, music. It's the kickoff to summer, and it's going to be 80 degrees and pure blue sky up my way. But nobody says "Happy Memorial Day" because while what we're celebrating is saying goodbye to winter (in almost Druidic fashion, it's definitely about the change of seasons), the holiday is about remembering the men and women who have put their lives on the line (and often lost them) in service to America. Almost seems like a disconnect, but I'm thinking it isn't. We're celebrating the people who have protected the country by engaging in that most American of pastimes...the big ol' cookout. :)

Another way Americans celebrate Memorial Day? We go to the movies. Saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull the other day, and loved *every* silly minute of it.

Also...seeing that we're talking about music, and top albums, and that sort of thing, I figured I'd mention my two favorite musical acquisitions of 2008 so far: "Rockferry" by Duffy, and "The Cost" by The Frames (that one's really amazing). Also, at the Indiana Jones movie, I ran into my friend Tracy, who asked a "desert island" question. You know, "if you were stuck on a desert island and could only take....what would it be?" This one was ONE CD. If you could only take ONE CD, which one would it be? Hmm. One CD, possibly forever. I mean, sure, after a couple of months you'd hate the CD and smash it (never mind where you'd be playing it on a desert island, but that's not the point of these things). (Reminds me of a fantastic short story about hell called "The Jane Fonda Room," I think. Can't remember the author, either. But it's about a guy who loves Jane Fonda movies with a passion, dies, ends up in a pleasant afterlife where everyone gets stuck in a room to watch their favorite movies. He watches Jane Fonda films over and over. Eventually he realizes that he's not in heaven, but in hell.)

But I digress. ONE CD for a desert island. Easy. Bob Marley, LEGEND. There really is no other choice. (All right, Amy Winehouse, maybe, but thinking of her just makes me sad, and that CD hasn't lived in my brain long enough for me to decide if it's as perfect as I think it is.)


Last thing. Another cover, just for fun. I hope that Jen doesn't mind that it's not an MTV book, but...last week, another publisher released MIND THE GAP, the first colloboration I've done with my good friend Tim Lebbon. Though it's not a YA novel, it's certainly YA friendly, as it focuses on a teenage London girl named Jazz, whose mother is murdered. Her killers are looking for Jazz, and the girl needs a place to hide--she finds it amongst a band of homeless thieves in the London underground...and *then* things start to get weird. There's a supa-cool trailer for it at http://www.thehiddencities.com/, where you can also post YOUR OWN ghost encounters. Here's the crazy cover.